From Field to Future
Chewing the cud at our bi-annual farm business meeting at FarmEd
Paul Sedgwick’s inspiring presentation
(Director of Rural, The Crown Estate)
Round table discussions with our farmers, speakers, staff and trustees
Speakers at the event, L-R: George Badger (Ceres Rural), George Dunn (Tenant Farmers Association), Zainab Kabba (Trustee), Hector Meanwell (Farm Manager, Low Beckside Farm), Paul Sedgwick (Director of Rural, The Crown Estate), Mary Riall (Chair), Vicki McDermott (Head of Learning & Partnerships, Cumbria/Lancs), Ian Pigott (Trustee)
Farming is volatile and we are at a difficult time. We would like to work effectively together to ensure resilient businesses and unlock value in new ways. This will enable us to meet future challenges and opportunities head-on, hand-in-hand.Claire, Head of Estate Management
Farming is an increasingly tough business nowadays, but that doesn’t mean we have to face these challenges alone. At The Ernest Cook Trust we are incredibly lucky to work hand in hand with experienced farmers to make sure our land and businesses can endure and thrive.
There is undoubtably a collective strength in working together, identifying ways to provide resilience and trying, where possible, to be ‘game ready’ for when opportunities and challenges present themselves. This increasingly supports our view that we must work together, ever more closely.
And this was the spirit behind our second biannual Farm Business Meeting in July held at FarmEd (a centre for Farming and Food Education in Oxfordshire), where a range of speakers gave us some worthwhile food for thought on not just the challenges but the opportunities around land, farming and the let agriculture sector.
If you needed to see an example of collective strength, it was the show of tenants from our estates from Dorset to Cumbria – hosted by Michael and the Land & Property team, to help bring our shared expertise and experience together. And we were really pleased to be able to welcome speakers who are nationally-known figures in land management – this wasn’t about just looking inward, but up and out at our shared horizons.
We heard from key figures like George Dunn, Chief Executive of the Tenant Farmers Association, and Paul Sedgwick, Director of Rural at The Crown Estate – both of whom reflected on the role of tenant farmers in developing environmentally-friendly and regenerative farming practices. From longer terms, to eligibility for environmental schemes to deliver food production, there was no shortage of meaningful and worthwhile suggestions.
George Badger, from farm and rural business consultants Ceres Rural, also drew attention to the opportunities for farmers – such as the growth of the carbon credits market, and the potential funding from developers who need to offset the impact of building new homes under the Biodiversity Net Gain regulations.
He concluded with optimism that although farming was facing its biggest period of change for a generation, there are opportunities for those farmers who can align productivity with sustainability.
It’s inspiring to hear from institutions, like The Crown Estate – which is aiming to repurpose 15% of farmland to long-term nature recovery, as well as reduce carbon emissions, increase sequestration, and attract new entrants into agriculture to secure the future. Income diversification is understandably a hot topic in the sector at the moment, and we are very lucky to have not just our speakers but our own farmers to lead the conversation.
Farmers such as Hector, the Farm Manager at Low Beckside Farm, who shared the work happening at the Cumbrian hill farm which also operates as a centre for rural learning, supported by Victoria, our Head of Learning, Operations & Partnerships for Cumbria/Lancashire. It was inspiring to hear about the changes made at Low Beckside since it was acquired by the Trust in 2021 – including planting nearly 9,000 metres of new hedges, creating 70 acres of fen, planting two orchards and a wood pasture.
We are so grateful for all our farmers’ time, taking this opportunity to share their updates and opinions, engaging in debates, raising challenges, as we work together to navigate the current farming landscape.
These gatherings give all of us the chance to learn from and grow with each other’s experience. That’s why we’ve also launched our new Farm Business Portal, an online tool dedicated to tenants’ farm businesses that helps us cultivate shared communication and resources. Whether it’s through the Farm Business Directory, our newsletter, or blogs, we look forward to driving vital debate and discussion between our valued tenant farmers.
Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive, with consensus that the event was “genuinely worthwhile, valuable and thought-provoking”. So we look forward to more opportunities to work together and collaborate.
Read more about how we value and manage our land here:
View our privacy policy.
